THE oldest document in Met Eireann's library in Dublin is a copy of a pamphlet written in 1682 by the then Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, one Dr Edward Wettenhall. Its title, lengthy and sonorous in the custom at the time, is A Judgement of the Comet which became First Generally Visible to us in Dublin December XHI, about 15 Minutes before 5 in the Evening, Anno Domine 1680, By a Person of Quality.
It is fitting in these, the closing days of the HaleBopp spectacle, to let His Lordship have the final say upon the subject.
"Tis indeed a general (but very presumptive maxim," writes the bishop, "avowed frequently to be grounded on long and constant observations, that Comets never appear without dreadful consequences. He quotes several authors, including Machiavelli, on the superstition. Ut ut se res habeat, experien tia certe comperium habemus, talia sign a sequi solere magnos aliquos motus "However the ease stands, tis found by experience that some great commotions usually follow such signs."
His Lordship, however, thinks such notions rubbish. He points out that "whenever God has thought fit to communicate, whether to any public part of the World or to any particular Persons, anything future of concernment to them, he has either sent Prophets to forshew his pleasure, or instituted Standing Oracles (such as were the Mercy Seat the Urim and Thummim, and Ephod among the Jews) for such time as he thought them fit, that his servants might consult him by them; and when they come thereto devoutly and piously disposed, if he saw it good for them, they received plain and categorical resolutions of what they so required.
"But it is evident to all men of sound mind that Prophets and Prophecies have long since ceased. Moreover, it can never, while the World stands, be made out as to a matter of fact that strange Events "pretended to be the Effects of Comets, have any more connexion with them than that of Accidental Synchronism - and sometimes not that neither."
But if some believe such things, the Bishop says, and think they come from God, it may well be no bad thing: "They may conduce to stop the mouths of some grosser sort of Atheists, or make vain and inconsiderate people capable of serious thought, which thought pursued may well be happy to them in the end."
"These are the best influences Comets can have on the World. But the making use of them, thereby to read the destinies of Kings, Nations or Governments, is irrational, fantastical, and heathenish, and unbecoming, either Man or Christian.